By Martin Macdonald

Bet

Napoli face a momentous task to stay in the Europa League as they went down 3-0 at home to Viktoria Plzen at the San Paolo.

Plzen silenced the home crowd 28 minutes in when Vladimir Darid popped up in the box to find the corner with a sweetly-struck left-footed shot.

Napoli sprayed the visiting goal with shots in the second half, with Marek Hamsik and and Juan Zuniga both guilty of wasting opportunities from the edge of the area. Their wasteful finishing came back to haunt them, however, as the Czech side doubled their lead 10 minutes from time. Frantisek Rajtoral ghosted in at the back post to squeeze a shot into the bottom left corner.

A horrendous night for the Italians got worse when Stanislav Tecl broke the offside trap before coolly finishing into the corner.

AJAX 2-0 STEAUA BUCHAREST

Ajax moved a step closer to the last 16 of the Europa League with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Steaua Bucharest at the Amsterdam Arena.

The Dutch champions controlled possession from the get-go, and barring a few speculative efforts at goal from the Romanian outfit, looked the most likely side to open the scoring in the first period.

They eventually found the net just before the half-hour mark when Christian Eriksen whipped in a free-kick from the right flank for Toby Alderweireld to head in from close range.

The hosts came flying out of the blocks after half-time, and scored after just a couple of minutes when Ricardo van Rhijn received a pass from Siem De Jong before slotting a shot into the bottom left corner.

Iasmin Latovlevici gave Ajax a scare late on when he rifled a shot at goal from 40 yards, only to see his attempt go just north of the bar. The home side ultimately held out to keep their two goal advantage intact.

BATE BORISOV 0-0 FENERBAHCE

BATE Borisov and Fenerbahce played out a 0-0 stalemate at the Stadyen Nyoman on Thursday evening.The Turkish side's gameplan was thrown out the window almost instantly as Raul Meireles saw red after just four minutes for inexplicably kicking out at Aliaksandr Hleb.

Hleb was the player who looked most likely to make something happen in the first half. The Belarusian came close to opening the scoring when he fired a left-footed strike at goal from the edge of the area, only to see his attempt well saved by Volkan Demirel.

The one-man advantage spurned BATE on, but they struggled to convert their domination of the ball into goals.

They had the misfortune of coming up against an in-form Demirel, who kept his side in the match with a string of saves. Vitali Rodionov had the best of the attempts when he lashed a strike towards the bottom right corner, only for the Fenerbahce goalkeeper to turn the ball round the post with his fingertips.

Moussa Sow went close with a long-range strike in the latter stages, but the match was destined to be a stalemate.

LEVERKUSEN 0-1 BENFICA

A solitary strike from Oscar Cardozo gave Benfica a vital away goal as the Portuguese outfit came out 1-0 winners over Leverkusen at the BayArena.

The German side had the better of the first 45 minutes and enjoyed the vast majority of the possession, but their finishing let them down badly as only a couple of attempts caused Benfica goalkeeper, Artur, many problems.

Stefan Kiessling and Gonzalo Castro should have put their side ahead, but missed with a close-range header and curled shot from inside the box.

The visitors took advantage of Leverkusen's wastefulness, and opened the scoring on the hour mark. Cardozo side-stepped the challenge of Daniel Schwaab before delightfully dinking the ball over goalkeeper, Bernd Leno, giving the hosts a lesson in finishing.

Leverkusen, rather astonishingly, had 25 shots on goal during the match, with only five managing to hit the target.

Jorge Jesus' men gratefully held on for the 1-0 win, and the precious away goal.

DYNAMO KYIV 1-1 BORDEAUX

Nothing could separate Dynamo Kyiv and Bordeaux as the Europa League quarter-final hopefuls played out a 1-1 draw in Ukraine.

The opening stages saw both side exchange speculative shots, and it was not until 20 minutes in that the match burst into life. The hosts drew first blood when Lukman Haruna latched on to a cross from Taye Taiwo to smash a right-footed shot high into the roof of the net.

However, Bordeaux replied almost instantly when Ludovic Obraniak picked up the ball on the edge of the box and found the bottom corner with a lovely left-footed strike.

Niko Kranjcar came within inches of restoring the lead shortly after the break when he fizzed a shot towards the top corner, only for Cedric Carrasso to tip the ball over the bar with a strong hand.

The hosts had a glorious chance to go ahead lead 15 minutes from time when Oleg Gusev was fouled inside the area. However, The Ukrainian smashed his penalty kick off the bar, allowing Bordeaux to leave with a draw.

LEVANTE 3-0 OLYMPIAKOS

Levante took a massive stride towards the Europa League quarter-final with a comprehensive 3-0 win over Olympiakos.

The hosts started the match the brighter of the sides, and opened the scoring after just 10 minutes. Jose Barkero threaded a pass through the middle for Pedro Rios, who lashed a strike into the bottom left corner.

Things got from bad to worse for the Greek side just before the half-hour mark when Djamel Abdoun saw red for a professional foul on Pedro Lopez inside the box. However, they were let off the hook when Obafemi Martins put the resulting penalty wide of the left-hand post.

Olympiakos did not heed previous warnings, though, as just before the break they conceded another penalty. This time Barkero stepped up to coolly dispatch into the bottom corner.

The match was put all but put to bed 10 minutes after the break when Levante counterattacked at pace down the middle and the ball came to Martins, who expertly finished past Balazs Megyeri in the Olympiakos goal.

Juan Ignacio Martinez's men now take a commanding lead over to Greece.

ANZHI 3-1 HANNOVER

Anzhi Makhachkala took a giant step towards the Europa League round of 16 on Thursday thanks to a 3-1 victory over Hannover in Dagestan.

However, it was their German visitors who took the lead inside 22 minutes when Hungarian winger Szabolcs Huszti powered home a strike from the edge of the box courtesy of Mame Diouf's lay-off.

Yet 12 minutes later, the comeback was on. Willian, on his Anzhi debut, burst down the right flank and drilled in a cross for Samuel Eto'o to tuck away with the goal at his mercy.

Shortly after the restart, Yuri Zhirkov's inch-perfect through ball was latched onto by Odil Ahmedov to put Guus Hiddink's side ahead for the first time in the match.

On the cusp of the hour mark, the former Barcelona and Inter forward was hauled down in the box by Christian Schulz, but his penalty was parried away by the Hannover goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler.

Nonetheless, the Russians sealed the first-leg success on 64 minutes - Mbark Boussoufa wrapping up a quick-fire break with a weighted finish to ensure advantage Anzhi.

MONCHENGLADBACH 3-3 LAZIO

A rather incredible match in Germany saw Lazio break Borussia Monchengladbach hearts by equalising in the last minute of stoppage time to secure themselves a thrilling 3-3 draw.

On 17 minutes, Patrick Herrmann's mazy dribble in the box attracted a foul from Andre Dias, allowing Foals captain Martin Stranzl to centrally stroke home the resulting spot kick.Yet Lazio were back in with a shout on 58 minutes when Sergio Floccari sent in a bullet header from Antonio Candreva, and just six minutes later, Libor Kozak's flick past Marc-Andre ter Stegen appeared to seal redemption for the Romans.

Vladimir Petkovic's troops, however, suffered a hammer blow soon after as Dias was given his marching orders by the referee following a second bookable offence in the area, but Stranzl could not repeat his previous heroics.

Fortunately for Gladbach, Lorik Cana conceded another penalty, bringing down striker Luuk de Jong, and substitute Thorben Marx made no mistake this time, slamming the ball towards the left-hand corner of the net.

With just two minutes of normal time to be spared, Juan Arango thought he had earned his side the win with a 30-yard screamer of a free kick, which left Federico Marchetti with no chance between the posts.

But it wasn't to be. Via virtually the last kick of the game, Kozak lived up to his super-sub billing after he met Hernanes' lobbed pass and nicked a third away goal for Lazio to leave the tie finely poised.

BASEL 2-0 DNIPRO

Basel put in an accomplished performance on Thursday to make easy work of their 2-0 success over Europa League last-32 opponents Dnipro.

And on the hour mark, veteran striker Marco Streller jumped highest to send home a glancing header past the former Fulham goalkeeper to leave the Ukrainians with a mountain to climb ahead of the return leg.

STUTTGART 1-1 GENK

Much like their German compatriots Monchengladbach, Stuttgart were also denied by the skin of their teeth after they succumbed to a 1-1 draw with Genk in the first minute of injury time to prolong their winless start to 2013.

For a moment it seemed that Bruno Labbadia's side had overcome their demons when Laszlo Koteles spilled Gotoku Sakai's strike and Christian Gentner sweeped up the rebound.

But in dramatic, show-stealing fashion, substitute Glynis Plet capitalised fully on a cross which deflected into his path and headed in the leveller, leaving both teams with no choice but to fight it out in Belgium.